On this day, sixty-three people renounced paganism, sectarian errors, and false schismatic beliefs!
On Lazarus Saturday, April 8, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, celebrated the rite of apostates returning to the holy Orthodox Church. On this day, sixty-three people renounced paganism, sectarian errors, and false schismatic beliefs, in Moscow’s Church of the “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Icon of the Mother of God, reports the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate.
As Lazarus was resurrected from bodily death, so have they been resurrected from … [Read more...]

by Sarah Whitman
The Rev. Gregory Joshua Edwards didn't always believe in God.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Edwards avoided his family's Episcopalian beliefs and focused on academics. Valedictorian of his 1996 high school graduating class, he served as student body president and editor of the yearbook. He referred to himself as an atheist. Then, as a student at Brown University, he began to question the meaning of life. Edwards' spiritual inquiries led him to the Greek Orthodox Church, into which he was received in April 2003.
After graduating with a degree in religious studies from Brown in 2003, Edwards worked as a teaching assistant and … [Read more...]

Converting to Orthodoxy in Spain. Tudor Petcu is a Romanian writer, graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romania. He has published a number of articles related to philosophy and theology in different cultural and academic journals. His work focuses on the evolution of Orthodox spirituality in Western societies as well and he is going to publish a book of interviews with Westerners converted to Orthodoxy. In this article, he interviews Jose Pino Francisco Rodriguez, a Spanish convert to Orthodoxy. In the early 1990s, when Spain experienced an influx of migrant workers from Eastern Europe, the number of Orthodox … [Read more...]

by Tudor PetcuTudor Petcu is a Romanian writer, graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romania. He has published a number of articles related to philosophy and theology in different cultural and academic journals. His work focuses on the evolution of Orthodox spirituality in Western societies as well and he is going to publish a book of interviews with Westerners converted to Orthodoxy. In this article, he interviews Bev Cooke, a Canadian writer who converted to Orthodoxy.TP: Given the fact that you are one of the most well-known orthodox thinkers and writers in the West, I think it would be very good if you could … [Read more...]